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Dementation
Dementation is the Discipline that allows a vampire to focus and channel madness into the minds of those around him. Though it’s the natural legacy of the Malkavians, practitioners of Dementation need not actually be mad to use the Discipline… but it helps. Disturbingly, Dementation doesn’t actually make their victims mad, but rather it seems to break down the doors to the hidden darkness of the target’s mind, releasing into the open whatever is found there. The Malkavians claim that this is because insanity is the next logical step in mental evolution, a transhumanist advancement of what modern people consider consciousness. Other Kindred scoff that this reasoning is an outright justification for the chaos that Dementation brings. They don’t scoff too loudly, however, lest the Malkavian advance their ''consciousness next. __TOC__ Dot 1 Powers Creepy Clown Coat ''This is a combo Discipline and requires Obfuscate 3. Everyone fears something. It may be a phobia, a person, or a concept. This ability allows you to appear as a representation of a person’s worst fears. They may flee, break down and cry, or start throwing punches at the very sight of you. System: '''Roll Wits + Awareness, with a difficulty equal to the target’s current Willpower. Success allows the user to appear as a human representation of what the target fears most. If the fear is of a concept or an animal, the user appears as a representation of that fear. For example, if a person is afraid of being burned alive, the Malkavian might appear as an arsonist, or as a relative of the target that burned up in a fire. The target must make a Courage roll to do anything other than react to the source of her fear. The target must generate a number of successes equal to the successes on the Malkavian’s roll. '''Experience cost: 12 Passion The vampire stirs his victim’s emotions, either heightening them to a fevered pitch or blunting them until the target is completely desensitized. The Cainite may not choose which emotion is affected; she may only amplify or dull emotions already present in the target. In this way, a vampire can inflame mild irritation into quivering rage or atrophy true love into casual interest. System: '''The character talks to her victim, and the vampire’s player rolls Charisma + Empathy (difficulty equals the victim’s Humanity or Path rating). The number of successes determines the duration of the altered state of feeling. Effects of this power might include one- or two-point additions or subtractions to difficulties of frenzy rolls, Virtue rolls, rolls to resist Presence powers, etc. '''Successes Result 1 success One turn 2 successes One hour 3 successes One night 4 successes One week 5 successes One month 6+ successes Three months Dot 2 Powers Haunting Seduction This is a combo Discipline and requires Presence 1. The Toreador are seductive, impressive creatures. When they’re around, they can be the only thing that matters in the world. But when they leave, their Presence fades, and that’s just not acceptable to some of the Degenerates. Dementation may merely unlock the door to the mind’s inner hallways and free what’s inside, but enterprising Toreador have discovered how to ensure that they ''are the whisper that haunts their target’s thoughts. In many ways, the Haunting Seduction is similar to the Dementation power The Haunting. Its effects occur mainly when the victim is alone, and mostly at night. However, the effects take on the tone of an almost maddening, seductive obsession. The subject may feel the light brush of a hand that he ''knows ''belongs to the vampire, or hear the vampire’s sibilant whisper just behind him. The Storyteller should let her imagination run wild when describing these sensory impressions; the victim may well feel as if he is going mad. '''System: '''After the vampire speaks to the victim, the player spends a blood point and rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge (difficulty of her victim’s Perception + Self-Control or Instinct). The number of successes determines the length of the sensory “visitations.” The precise effects are up to the Storyteller, though it is highly likely that the visions will affect the difficulties of any social interactions between the vampire and her target the next time they meet. '''Successes Result' 1 One night 2 Two nights 3 One week 4 One month 5 Three months 6+ One year Experience cost: 9 Malkav’s Pavlovian Response This is a combo Discipline and requires Dominate 2. Malkavians blessed with the knowledge of both of these Disciplines can use them to connect someone or something with a specific emotion. The Kindred can make someone hate their boss, love their enemy, or lust after a specific book. System: '''The Kindred rolls Charisma + Subterfuge with a difficulty equal to the target’s current Willpower. She speaks a word, which can be hidden in a sentence, and connects a specific emotion to that word. Whenever the target encounters the word or the object connected to the word, they feel the emotion. This lasts one night per success rolled, starting with the evening the Kindred uses the power. '''Experience cost: 12 The Haunting The vampire manipulates the sensory centers of his victim’s brain, flooding the victim’s senses with visions, sounds, scents, or feelings that aren’t really there. The images, regardless of the sense to which they appeal, are only fleeting “glimpses,” barely perceptible to the victim. The vampire using Dementation cannot control what the victim perceives, but may choose which sense is affected. The “haunting” effects occur mainly when the victim is alone, and mostly at night. They may take the form of the subject’s repressed fears, guilty memories, or anything else that the Storyteller finds dramatically appropriate. The effects are never pleasant or unobtrusive, however. The Storyteller should let her imagination run wild when describing these sensory impressions; the victim may well feel as if she is going mad, or as if the world is. System: '''After the vampire speaks to the victim, the player spends a blood point and rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge (difficulty of his victim’s Perception + Self- Control/Instinct). The number of successes determines the length of the sensory “visitations.” The precise effects are up to the Storyteller, though particularly eerie or harrowing apparitions can certainly reduce dice pools for a turn or two after the manifestation. '''Successes Result 1 success One night 2 successes Two nights 3 successes One week 4 successes One month 5 successes Three months 6+ successes One year Dot 3 Powers Days of Passions Past This is a combo Discipline and requires Auspex 2. People’s moods shift from moment to moment. Vampires with Auspex can take their chances and try to interpret a person’s mood at that very moment from an aura. However, those with this power look into the chaos and see what moods the target engages in most frequently. System: '''Roll Perception + Awareness, with a difficulty based on the chart below to see how far back the Malkavian can read the history of the aura. Each success allows the Malkavian to see another emotion. One success allows the most common color at the time to reveal itself; two successes allow the two most common, and so on. It may also be used to detect when the vampire has consumed the blood of a supernatural creature, including other vampires. This can be used to detect diablerie, but reporting such a crime becomes the Malkavian’s word against the target. The Malkavian gains no further insight about what happened, why the target felt this way, or to whom the consumed blood belongs. '''Difficulty How Far Back 9 Since last decade 8 Since last year 7 Since last month 6 Since last week 5 Since last night Experience cost: 15 Eyes of Chaos This peculiar power allows the vampire to take advantage of the fleeting clarity hidden in insanity. She may scrutinize the “patterns” of a person’s soul, the convolutions of a vampire’s inner nature, or even random events in nature itself. The Kindred with this power can discern the most well-hidden psychoses, or gain insight into a person’s true self. Malkavians with this power often have (or claim to have) knowledge of the moves and countermoves of the great Jyhad, or the patterns of fate. System: 'This power allows a vampire to determine a person’s true Nature, among other things. The vampire concentrates for a turn, then her player rolls Perception + Occult. The difficulty depends on the intricacy of the pattern. Discerning the Nature of a stranger would be difficulty 9, a casual acquaintance would be an 8, and an established ally a 6. The vampire could also read the message locked in a coded missive (difficulty 7), or even see the doings of an invisible hand in such events as the pattern of falling leaves (difficulty 6). Almost anything might contain some hidden insight, no matter how trivial or meaningless. The patterns are present in most things, but are often so intricate they can keep a vampire spellbound for hours while she tries to understand their message. This is a potent power, subject to adjudication. Storytellers, this power is an effective way to introduce plot threads for a chronicle, reveal an overlooked clue, foreshadow important events, or communicate critical information a player seeks. Important to its use, though, is delivering the information properly. Secrets revealed via Eyes of Chaos are never simple facts; they’re tantalizing symbols adrift in a sea of madness. Describe the results of this power in terms of allegory: “The man before you appears as a crude marionette, with garish features painted in bright stage makeup, and strings vanishing up into the night sky.” Avoid stating plainly, “You learn that this ghoul is the minion of a powerful Methuselah.” Rando ''This is a combo Discipline and requires Obfuscate 3. Obfuscate has long been a staple for walking unnoticed through crowds. Sometimes, a Malkavian wants to deliver a message to someone from the safety of a crowded street. This power allows a Malkavian to communicate with someone while protecting his identity with a random face. Every time the target looks at the Kindred, she sees somebody else. 'System: '''Roll Wits + Stealth. The difficulty is determined using the guidelines below, and each roll targets a specific person. Every time the target sees the Malkavian, she sees someone matching the current scene. If the target looks away and looks back, the form she sees changes. One moment, the Malkavian might look like a willowy concertgoer. The next glance, the Malkavian looks like a burly security guard, and so on. '''Difficulty Density of people ' 9 A city street at midnight 8 A sparsely attended gallery show 7 A busy restaurant at dinner 6 A shopping mall at Christmas 5 A standing-room-only concert '''Experience cost: 18 Dot 4 Powers Do As I Say, Not As I Say This is a combo Discipline and requires Dominate 1. Clever users of Dominate often slip their command words into a sentence with a hint of inflection to hide their commands. For those Malkavians who mastered both Dominate and Dementation, the words spoken doesn’t have to be the words intended. When this Malkavian locks eyes with the victim, the words spoken as a command are different from the one the victim hears in their head. The one heard inside the head is the one followed. System: '''The Kindred rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge (difficulty equal to the target’s current Willpower). More successes make the subject pursue the Dominate command more vigorously. '''Experience cost: 15 Screams Made Real This is a combo Discipline and requires Auspex 4. Everyone has hidden, disturbing images that hide somewhere in his or her mind. This power allows the Malkavian to pull those images to the surface and confront their creator. System: '''The Kindred spends a blood point and makes a Manipulation + Empathy roll (difficulty 8). Each success pulls a disturbing image from the mind of the target. The target thinks the images are real and acts accordingly. The images last for a scene. Affected victims fly into a blind flight or frenzy. Kindred or other creatures capable of frenzy, like Lupines, may make a frenzy check with a difficulty penalty equal to the number of successes on the roll. Humans get no such roll. They much choose flight or fight immediately. '''Experience cost: 24 Voice of Madness By merely addressing his victims aloud, the Kindred can drive targets into fits of blind rage or fear, forcing them to abandon reason and higher thought. Victims are plagued by hallucinations of their subconscious demons, and try to flee or destroy their hidden shames. Tragedy almost always follows in the wake of this power’s use, though offending Malkavians often claim that they were merely encouraging people to act “according to their natures.” Unfortunately for the vampire concerned, he runs a very real risk of falling prey to his own voice’s power. System: 'The player spends a blood point and makes a Manipulation + Empathy roll (difficulty 7). One target is affected per success, although all potential victims must be listening to the vampire’s voice. Affected victims fly immediately into frenzy or a blind fear like Rötschreck. Kindred or other creatures capable of frenzy, such as Lupines, may make a frenzy check or Rötschreck test (Storyteller’s choice as to how they are affected) at +2 difficulty to resist the power. Mortals are automatically affected and don’t remember their actions while berserk. The frenzy or fear lasts for a scene, though vampires and Lupines may test as usual to snap out of it. The vampire using Voice of Madness must also test for frenzy or Rötschreck upon invoking this power, though his difficulty to resist is one lower than normal. If the initial roll to invoke this power is a failure, however, the roll to resist the frenzy is one higher than normal. If the roll to invoke this power is a botch, the frenzy or Rötschreck response is automatic. Ze Monkey’s Paw ''This is a combo Discipline and requires Auspex 3. Superstitions are little pieces of irrationality that still take hold in the rational world. Malkavians with this ability play on these notions to convince a perfectly normal person that an inanimate object is the source of all their troubles. It’s a great way to get someone babbling about strange connections, or dig a valuable item out of the trash when the victim throws it away. '''System: '''Roll Wits + Subterfuge (difficulty 6), while touching an object, picturing a specific person, and spending a point of Willpower. The next time the target sees the object, the power starts working. Every success rolled robs the target of a Health level (when a minor accident involving the object occurs) or a Willpower point (when the target somehow blames a bad turn in their life on the object). The Malkavian chooses the split when the power is used, but the target loses no more than one Willpower point or one Health level per scene. The Malkavian has no control over what the target does with the object or when the curse strikes, but the target is unlikely to keep it for long. '''Experience cost: 21 Dot 5 Powers Total Insanity The vampire coaxes the madness from the deepest recesses of her target’s mind, focusing it into an overwhelming wave of insanity. This power has driven countless victims, vampire and mortal alike, to unfortunate ends. System: '''The Kindred must gain her target’s undivided attention for at least one full turn to enact this power. The player spends a blood point and rolls Manipulation + Intimidation (difficulty of her victim’s current Willpower points). If the roll is successful, the victim is afflicted with five derangements of the Storyteller’s choice. The number of successes determines the duration. '''Successes Result 1 success One turn 2 successes One night 3 successes One week 4 successes One month 5+ successes One year On a botch… well, the Storyteller can decide what a vampire inflicts upon herself by attempting to incite the primal hells lurking within the darkest recesses of a victim’s mind. The victim (or the target of a botch) can spend a number of Willpower points equal to the successes rolled to end the duration prematurely. The Storyteller decides when such Willpower points can be spent (such as after a therapy session or after a friend has managed to prove a particular delusion to be false). Dot 6 Powers Babble This power allows a Kindred to speak with multiple targets using telepathy. All of their minds are linked, but they must communicate with each other by speaking out loud. Furthermore, each person linked speaks as if the person her or she is talking to is standing right next to him or her. For example, if Alexandria and Mister E. are connected with Babble, Alexandria can murmur quietly and be heard since he’s in a movie theater, while Mister E. has to shout because she’s on the dance floor of the local dance club. System: '''The vampire may link a number of targets equal to her permanent Willpower. Malkavians may push the number of people connected to Babble to her Willpower + Empathy, if all the subjects possess at least one derangement and don’t resist the Discipline. Kindred with the Malkavian Time Specialty may choose to use their Awareness instead. Lingering Malaise While lesser Dementation powers allow a vampire to inflict temporary (though often long-lasting) madness upon a victim, elders of the Clan have developed the ability to infect the minds of their victims with permanent maladies. Lingering Malaise causes permanent psychological shifts within the victim, making him, as one Gangrel elder remarked, “an honorary Lunatic.” '''System: '''The character speaks to his victim for at least a minute, describing the derangement that Lingering Malaise will inflict. The player rolls Manipulation + Empathy (difficulty equal to the victim’s current Willpower points); the victim resists with a Willpower roll (using his permanent Willpower at difficulty 8). If the user of Lingering Malaise scores more successes, the victim gains a permanent derangement chosen by the individual who inflicts it. Lingering Malaise may only be used to inflict one derangement per night on any given victim, though multiple attempts may be made until the derangement takes hold. Shattered Mirror Although Dementation’s low-level effects are primarily to initiate or promote insanity rather than to create it spontaneously, some of its more potent manifestations are not as subtle. The wielder of this fearsome power can transfer her own deranged mindset into the psyche of a hapless victim, spreading her own brand of insanity like a virus. '''System: '''The vampire must establish eye contact with her intended victim to apply this power. The player then rolls Charisma + Subterfuge (difficulty equal to the target’s current Willpower points) resisted by the target’s Wits + Self-Control/Instinct (difficulty equal to the Dementation user’s current Willpower points). If the aggressor wins, the target gains all of her derangements and Mental Flaws for a period of time determined by the number of net successes the aggressor scored: '''Successes Result 1 success one hour 2 successes one night 3 successes one week 4 successes one month 5 successes six months 6+ successes one year per success over 5 Dot 7 Powers Restructure The elder with this fearsome power has the ability to twist his victims’ psyches at their most basic levels, warping their very beings. The subject of Restructure retains her memories, but her outlook on life changes completely, as if she has undergone a sudden epiphany or religious conversion. This effect goes much deeper than the implantation of a derangement; it actually performs a complete rewrite of the victim’s personality. System: '''As the description says, this power allows the vampire to change his target’s Nature to one more suitable to his ends. To accomplish this, the character must make eye contact with his intended victim. The player rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge (difficulty equals the victim’s Wits + Subterfuge). If he rolls a number of successes equal to or greater than the target’s Self-Control/Instinct, the target’s Nature changes to whatever the player using Restructure desires. This effect is permanent and can be undone only by another application of Restructure (though subtle differences from the character’s original Nature may still remain, as it is impossible for such a fundamental change to occur flawlessly). A botch on this roll changes the character’s own Nature to that of his intended victim. Dot 8 Powers Personal Scourge Similar to the Auspex power of Psychic Assault, this fearsome ability allows the elder to turn the very strength of her victim’s mind against him, inflicting physical harm with the power of his own will. Victims of this self-powered attack spontaneously erupt in lacerations and bruises, spraying blood in every direction and howling in agony. Those who have observed such an attack with Auspex note that the victim’s aura swirls with violent psychosis and erupts outward in writhing appendages — a sight that can make even the most jaded Tzimisce quail. '''System: '''The vampire must touch or establish eye contact with her target. The player rolls Manipulation + Empathy (difficulty equal to the target’s Stamina + Self-Control/Instinct) and spends two Willpower points. For a number of turns equal to the number of successes rolled, the victim rolls his own permanent Willpower as lethal damage against himself. This damage can be soaked with his own Humanity or Path of Enlightenment (difficulty 6); Fortitude does not add to this soak dice pool, nor does body armor. He may take no actions during this time other than thrashing and gibbering; this includes spending blood to heal. Dot 9 Powers Lunatic Eruption This fearsome ability is only known to have been applied a few times in recorded Kindred history, most spectacularly during the final nights of the last battle of Carthage. It is effectively a psychic nuclear bomb, used to incite every intelligent being within several miles (kilometers) into an orgy of bloodlust and rage. It is suspected that the Malkavians have used the threat of this power as a bargaining chip in several key negotiations. '''System: '''The player spends four Willpower points and rolls Stamina + Intimidation (difficulty 8). The area of effect is determined by the number of successes scored: '''Successes Result 1 success One city block 2 successes An entire neighborhood 3 successes A large downtown area 4 successes Several neighborhoods 5 successes An entire metropolitan area(approximately 30 miles or 45 kilometers) 6+ successes An additional 10 miles or 15 kilometers for every success past 5. Within this area, all sentient creatures fall prey to their baser instincts. Mortals spontaneously riot, looting and burning between bouts of mass violence. Kindred enter hunger-induced frenzies, draining dry as many vessels as they can sink their fangs into. An entire city can quite literally be driven temporarily insane by this power. Lunatic Eruption’s effects persist until the next sunrise, and anyone entering its area of effect (centered on the site at which it was used, not on the character who applied it) falls under its spell. However, momentum may carry the violence spawned by this power much farther — and keep it going much longer — than the power itself can force. Victims of Lunatic Eruption may resist with Self-Control/Instinct rolls (difficulty equal to the Dementation user’s permanent Willpower rating); each success provides one hour of lucidity, which most wise individuals use to leave the power’s area of effect (leaving the “blast radius” removes the power’s influence). The source of Lunatic Eruption may be pinpointed if a character is using Heightened Senses or an equivalent power at the time it is used; this is automatic and requires no roll. However, this grants no knowledge of what actually happened — the observer simply “feels” a massive psychic shockwave explode from the character using the power.